The Straits Times: Closer ties as neighbours bond over food

Our neighbourly story was featured on Straits Times on 22^nd February 2015! What an honour for me to speak to The Straits Times after my entry submission for Let’s Makan emerge as the finalist.

Click Here for Let’s Makan Website (Entry Submission)

Let’s Makan is an initiative by The Singapore Kindness Movement, to enhance neighbourly ties and gathering of neighbours from different walks of life by sharing a meal together. It hopes to foster closer relationships among neighbours.

I find this initiative really helpful as everyone in Singapore enjoys food! Eating together is definitely the best way to get to know one another. By organising food sessions with my neighbours, we came to know each other’s food preferences, type of food we like or dislike, and raving over yummy hawker stalls that we promise to go together. For me, having a bunch of good neighbours living close to me was a great blessing. We are able to look out for one another in times of need and foster meaningful friendship together.

Click Here for the ST Online Article

“The decline of neighbourliness across the world follows a similar pattern. Dual-income families, the individualisation of leisure and entertainment, dense city living, greater physical mobility brought about by better public and private transport, and growing disparity in incomes, are all factors that have made neighbours more insular and less connected to one another.”

Getting out and speaking to your neighbours might feel daunting, but be brave! It will be worth it and you will be surprised on how keen people are. So take the first step and be the someone! I believe everyone can make the world a better place to live in and start by fostering good relationship around the neighbourhood ♡

Ma Maison, Beer Market & Ju Shin Jung

Been on a hunt to explore new places with Wayne and this time round to celebrate Heng’s birthday, we decided to go for a Japanese cuisine and in the end we headed to Ma Maison Restaurant at Bugis Junction for a fusion of Western and Japanese cuisine! The highly raved and recommend are their escargots and squid ink pasta! Ma Maison always have a long queue outside the restaurant, which waiting time varies from 20mins to 1 hour. With that, we queued around 30 mins before getting a place for 4. And fast enough, it took less than 10mins for our food to arrive! <;3

The food there was commendable! It was worth the wait & tasted super good! What we ordered in accordingly was the Sizzling Burger Steak on Hotplate, Escargots, Paella (Seafood Platter Rice), Moule Plain (Mussels with White Wine) tag along with complimentary fries, Tonkatsu and my favourite Cuttlefish Ink Spaghetti! Out of the 6 dishes we ordered, 4 of us agreed that the Tonkatsu was mediocre and there’s nothing special about it. But the rest was great! Just enough to fill 4 satisfied tummies! The payment key was the most classic piece I ever seen! A metal tag and key with the table number and proceeding to the cashier for payment! Price is reasonable and we would head there anytime soon for the Escargots!!!

We then searched for a place to chill and we went straight to Clarke Quay! I always love hanging out at Clarke Quay, cause of the long Singapore River and the nice pubs along the streets. Enjoying the music and fun within the area makes Clarke Quay one of the best Singapore night hangout! We wanted to find a place to talk and catch up, so we headed to Beer Market, where they have tables around to sit in but no entrance fee needed unlike clubs. What I like about them is their creative way of marketing. Have you ever wondered why is it called the Beer Market? Cause they want it to be like a Stock Market! Cool is it? They have this jumping counter whereby every half and hour the prices of the beer would differ and you can order it at the lowest price if you’re “following” it carefully. Some creative concept they have!

Happy Birthday my dear friend! May everything goes well for you! Glad to know the plans that you made for Nikki and yourself! It have been an annual thing to celebrate your birthday, just like last year if you remember it was at Clarke Quay too! Heh! 😀

Ma Maison Restaurant (Bugis Junction)

200 Victoria Street, #02-51 Bugis Junction

Tel: +65 6338 4819

Opening Hours:

Mon–Fri: 11.30am–3pm, 6pm–10pm

Sat–Sun: 11.30am–10pm

Beer Market

Blk 3B River Valley Road, #01-17/02-02 The Foundry @ Clarke Quay

Tel: +65 9661 8283

Opening Hours:

Sun–Thu: 6pm – 2am

Fri–Sat: 6pm – 3am

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Had another round of birthday celebration with Windie darling too! Was looking around for something different and wanted to try out a new place! We decided on a Korean Cuisine as the birthday girl requested, so Wayne suggested we try out Ju Shin Jung Korean BBQ along East Coast Road, whereby we always had our meals nearby yet never did try it before! After posting on Fb, Twitter & Instagram quite a number of my friends asked me where this BBQ place is! Here you go!!! Really looks good and taste good! (They have really good quality of meats! Big YUMZ!)

What I love most about this place is their excellent service! We do not exactly need to cook the meat ourselves or scare the flaking hot oil! The attendant would be cooking for us and EVEN dipping the sauce for us! And he ask us not to be shy; cause its what they should do! Such good service deserve extra thumbs up!The juicy tender meat was the best of the lot! In most Korean BBQ, what’s important is the meat and their side dishes! It is important to have good quality of meat before anything else. Which I truly would agree, this have been the best Korean BBQ I have eaten so far.The choices of Soups and Bibimbap! I choose to try their vegetables rice bowl, and was not disappointed! 😀 Me with the birthday girl, Windie! Always so dear and sisterly to me 😀The three of us together! Before we left, we can’t help but stop for a pictureee! So many people have been here before, this includes Lee Min Ho (awwwww!), 2PM and many many local celebrities. There is a choice of a buffet style or an ala carte menu to choose from. We opt for the buffet as you know we eat quite a lot! Heh! The price for the dinner buffet was $35.00++ for adult and $19.00++ for child. Highly recommended place for Korean Food Lovers! 😀

Ju Shin Jung

1018 East Coast Parkway, #02-01

Tel: +65 6447 9279

Opening Hours:

Daily: 11.45am – 2pm, 6pm – 10pm

(Closed during lunch hours on Mondays)